When a group of Liberal Democratic Party members put on a traditional story-telling show using picture cards on a chilly Tokyo street in late December to drum up support for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal privatization drive, many of their colleagues scoffed.
The performance attracted some 100 passersby in the busy Yurakucho commercial district. It was also attended by LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe and postal privatization minister Heizo Takenaka, both supporters of Koizumi's postal reform push.
The LDP group plans to take its show around the country as part of efforts to promote Koizumi's key reform initiative.